culture. Germs have been found in the
"Old Oaken Bucket" in the country, while the scourge of typhoid has
been banished from the city, and the "Church in the Dell" has crumbled
in decay, while the metropolitan pulpit has taken the best leadership
for its own. The country has been unable to compete with the urban
centers for educational, religious, or social leadership because
wealth has accumulated in the cities. Rural population has declined
because the prizes in wealth accumulation were in the cities and
because it was easier to secure those things there that people have
learned to value as most worth while, in good housing, medical
attendance, education, and recreation. While city poets have sung the
praises of country life, many people who have lived in the country and
endured the long hours and little pay from husbandry have, like the
Arab, folded their tents and slipped away; and when once they have
tasted the advantages of urban life, have not returned.

No civilization can be wholesome or permanent so long as any one great
group is permanently handicapped in its struggle for economic or
social welfare. So long as any group is evidently at a disadvantage
the shift of population from the less-favored to the better-favored
groups will continue; that is, unless castes are formed which compel
people to remain permanently in one group or the other. And this does
not happen in modern democratic society. And so long as there is a
continuous shift of population in one direction or another we have
evidence that conditions are such as to induce the shift.

It is the existence of conditions such as these that makes the
challenge for a trained loyal service on the part of those selected to
attend to matters concerned with rural public welfare.

It is the purpose of the following pages to outline briefly some of
the conditions to which the church must give attention if it is to
meet the demand now made upon it by modern rural life. It is not
intended to be a treatise on practical theology in the sense
ordinarily accepted in courses on that subject. Very little attention
will be given to matters of organization or administration of the
local church. It is believed that if only ministers of the gospel can
once attain an adequate grasp of the purposes of religious service,
the matter of method of accomplishing results may be left largely to
the pastors themselves. On the other hand, emphasis upon method, which
seems to be de